It was one of those rare moments of authentic branding genius that gave us the Andrex puppy in 1972. The cute labrador retriever running with rapidly unravelling bog roll created an instant nationwide Pavlovian association: it is now practically impossible to see a small dog without thinking: "I need a poo." To this day the brand remains market leader, yet in one of the most brutally cut-throat acts advertising has seen, Andrex has stuck the puppy in a sack weighed down with rocks and launched it into a canal. Its latest campaign features instead a kennel full of digitised CGI labrador imposters, working on their laptops, driving cabs, walking on hind legs around airports – an anthropomorphised version of the doggy doggworld Snoop Dogg warned us about.

It's a bold move from Andrex's parent company Kimberly-Clark and so far it seems to have backfired, with puppy-loving punters hopping mad about it all. The highest-rated comment on the ad's YouTube video is: "iactually hate this advert!!! it is just disturbing and wronggg. it relii needs tobe removed!!" A plaintive cri de coeur from the comment massive, but it doesn't end there. Joining the outcry are several Facebook groups with ominous titles like Kill The CGI Andrex Puppy. The campaign has cost £15m and Andrex faces a very expensive poop scoop mission tidying up this mess. The moral? If you're going to indulge in reckless doggycide, make sure the mutt is one that no one likes, such as Poochie, Churchill or Scrappy Doo. Because it's really hard to watch as Andrex so callously alienates its core arse wipers.